Question 1

How do you say taxon?

Accepted Answer

Taxon is pronounced TAK-sonn, with the stress on the first syllable. The x makes a ks sound, just like in the word taxi. The second syllable is short and unstressed, almost like the word on. So say it fast and crisp: TAK-sonn.

Question 2

What does taxon mean?

Accepted Answer

A taxon is any officially named and recognized group of living things in the biological classification system. It can refer to a single species, or to a much larger group like a family or a whole class of animals. The word is useful because it lets scientists talk about any level of the classification system without having to specify which level they mean. Every named dinosaur species is a taxon, and so is the much larger group Dinosauria that contains all of them.

Question 3

What is the plural of taxon?

Accepted Answer

The plural of taxon is taxa, not taxons. This is because the word comes directly from ancient Greek, and Greek neuter nouns ending in on typically form their plurals with an a ending. Scientists use taxa constantly in research papers and museum labels. Saying taxons instead of taxa is a common mistake that reveals someone is new to biology or paleontology.

Question 4

What is the difference between a taxon and a species?

Accepted Answer

A species is one specific type of taxon, but taxon is a much broader word. Every species is a taxon, but not every taxon is a species. A genus like Tyrannosaurus is a taxon. A family like Tyrannosauridae is a taxon. Even the entire group Dinosauria is a taxon. The word taxon covers all of those levels at once, while species refers only to the most specific level of classification.

Question 5

Is Dinosauria a taxon?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Dinosauria is a taxon, specifically a very large one called a clade. It was first named as a taxon by the British scientist Richard Owen in 1842, making it one of the most famous taxa in all of paleontology. Dinosauria includes every dinosaur that has ever lived, from tiny feathered species the size of crows all the way up to the largest land animals that ever walked the Earth. Because birds evolved from dinosaurs, they are also included inside the taxon Dinosauria.

Question 6

How does a new dinosaur become an official taxon?

Accepted Answer

For a new dinosaur to become an official taxon, a scientist must publish a formal paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The paper must describe the physical features of the fossil in detail, explain clearly how it differs from all other known taxa, give it a unique scientific name following Latin and Greek naming rules, and identify a type specimen housed in a recognized museum collection. Until that paper is published, the dinosaur might be known about, but it does not officially exist as a taxon in the scientific record.

Question 7

Can a taxon be invalid or get removed?

Accepted Answer

Yes, taxa can be declared invalid, and it happens fairly often in paleontology. If scientists later discover that two taxa named separately are actually the same animal, the older name takes priority and the newer name becomes a junior synonym. Some famous examples include the discovery that Brontosaurus had been named after fossils that turned out to be a juvenile Apatosaurus, making Brontosaurus an invalid taxon for over a century. Interestingly, a 2015 study reanalyzed the evidence and argued Brontosaurus deserves to be its own valid taxon after all.

Question 8

What is a higher taxon vs a lower taxon?

Accepted Answer

In biological classification, higher taxa are broader groups that contain many species, such as a class or an order, while lower taxa are more specific groups closer to the individual species level, such as a genus or a species itself. For example, Archosauria is a higher taxon that includes crocodilians, dinosaurs, and birds together. Tyrannosaurus rex is a lower taxon that refers to just one specific species. The higher you go, the more distantly related the members of the taxon can be.

Question 9

Why do scientists need the word taxon at all?

Accepted Answer

Before the word taxon existed, scientists had to be specific every time they wanted to refer to a classification group, always saying species or genus or family. This became awkward when writing about classification in general, since sometimes the exact rank does not matter and you just need a word for any named biological group. Taxon solved that problem by giving scientists a single efficient word that works at any level of the hierarchy. It is the same reason English has the word vehicle instead of having to always say car or truck or bicycle.

Question 10

What does it mean when scientists say a taxon is monophyletic?

Accepted Answer

A monophyletic taxon is one that includes a single common ancestor and every single one of its descendants. Scientists consider monophyletic groups, also called clades, to be the most scientifically valid kind of taxon because they reflect true evolutionary history. Dinosauria is considered monophyletic because all dinosaurs trace back to a single ancestral dinosaur species. By contrast, a group that leaves out some descendants, like the old definition of Reptilia that excluded birds, is called paraphyletic and is considered an artificial grouping by modern scientists.

Question 11

Who invented the word taxon?

Accepted Answer

The word taxon was introduced by Herman Johannes Lam, a Dutch botanist who worked at the Leiden Herbarium in the Netherlands. He coined the term in 1926 to give botanists and biologists a convenient shorthand for any formally recognized group in the classification system, regardless of rank. The term was quickly adopted across biology and paleontology and was officially recognized by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Today it is one of the most frequently used technical terms in all of biological science.

Question 12

How many dinosaur taxa are known?

Accepted Answer

As of recent estimates, scientists have formally named and described over 1,000 valid dinosaur taxa at the species level, with many more that have been named but are considered dubious or invalid due to poor fossil material. New dinosaur taxa are being named at a remarkable rate of roughly 40 to 50 new species every year as paleontologists explore previously unsearched regions of the world, particularly in China, Argentina, and parts of Africa. Some researchers estimate that the total number of dinosaur species that ever existed could be in the tens of thousands, meaning we have only scratched the surface.

Question 13

Are humans a taxon?

Accepted Answer

Yes, humans are a taxon, and actually several taxa at once nested inside each other. At the species level, modern humans are the taxon Homo sapiens. That species belongs to the genus taxon Homo. That genus belongs to the family taxon Hominidae, which includes great apes. Every living thing on Earth belongs to multiple taxa simultaneously, stacked from very specific at the bottom to very broad at the top. You are a member of the taxa Homo sapiens, Homo, Hominidae, Primates, Mammalia, Vertebrata, Animalia, and several more all at the same time.

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